Hinge latch structure



* C. J. HUGHEY HINGE LATCH STRUCTURE June 10, 1941.

Filed April 17, 1940 lllllllll CARTER J./72/6HEY INVENTOR BY awn ;TTORNEYS Patented June 10, 1941 HHNGE LATCH STRUCTURE Carter J. Hughey, Rochester, N. Y., assignor to Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, N. Y., a. corporation of New Jersey Application April v1'7, 194i), Serial'No. 330,138

3 Claims.

This invention relates to a combined hinge and latch structure.

One object of my invention is to provide a hinge member, parts of which are movably mounted so as to serve as a latch, as well as a hinge. Another object of my invention is to provide dual latch mechanism arranged so that two manually operable members must be moved before the hinge latch mechanism is released. Another object of my invention is to provide a latch mechanism, the parts of which are comparatively small and inconspicuous and the parts of which lie substantially flush with the body member on which they are mounted. Still another object of my invention is to provide a combined latch and hinge mechanism in which the latch elements have frictional latching engagement with a hinge pintle so that one of the relatively hinged parts carrying a hinged member may be readily moved relative to the other part when the latch elements are released. Other objects will appear from the following specification, the novel features being particularly pointed out in the claims at the end thereof.

Coming now to the drawing in which like reference characters denote like parts throughout:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a body memberhere shown as a camera-equipped with a removable cover which is hingedly attached to the body member with a hinge latch construction, constructed in accordance with and embodying a preferred form of my invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary view, partially in elevation and partially in section, showing the hinge latch construction.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary detail in elevation of one of the latch elements moved to its unlatching position.

Fig. 4 is a section on line 4-4 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is a section on line 55 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of one of the latch elements removed from the camera.

I have illustrated, as an embodiment of my invention, a photographic camera having a body I which is equipped with an objective lens 2 and a finder lens 3 which may be geared together by the gears 4 and 5 so that the two lenses may be simultaneously focused all in a known manner. On the top wall 6 of the camera, I preferably provide a collapsible hood which covers a ground glass on which an image produced by the lens 3 and reflected by a mirror 4 may be focused. The camera is provided with a removable L-shaped cover member 8 which is attached by a hinge latch construction located at the front lowermost edge 9 of the camera so that the back may be swung about this edge as a hinge, or it may be entirely removed from the camera by releasing the hinge latch construction, as will be hereinafter more fully described.

The upper edge ll! of the cover member 8 may be latched against the camera by a latch member l l which may be hinged at l2 to the camera,

although any desirable type of latch may be used for this purpose.

While I have described my invention as particularly applicable to cameras, it is obvious that the hinge latch construction which will now be fully described can be applied to any two hinge parts where it is desirable to use the hinge as a latch as well as a hinge so that the cover member may be removed.

Coming now to my invention, the camera body I may be provided with a pair of spaced hinge knuckles l3 which are slotted at I4 to receive the ends E5 of a hinge pintle I6, which is preferably carried by the hinged knuckle ll which forms a part of the bottom wall l8 of the camera which, in the present form of the invention, also extends upwardly and across the camera back to the top wall of the camera.

In order to hold the ends l5 of the hinge pintle in their operative latched position, I provide a pair of latch members designated broadly as 20 and best shown in Fig. 6. These members consist of an arm 2| having an aperture 22 to receive the pivot which may preferably consist of a screw 23, as shown in Fig. 2. This arm carries a second arm 24 extending away from arm 2| and arm 24 is formed inwardly at 25 and is preferably provided with an arcuate surface 26 adapted to engage the hinge pintle end l5. This arcuate surface may be notched at 21 to produce a form of snap latch which will engage the pintle end 15 or, as indicated in Fig. 4, the arcuate surface 26 may merely be so arranged that the distance D between the pivotal point and the arcuate surface is somewhat less than the distance d between the pivotal point and the upper edge of the hinge pintle end l5 so that there is merely frictional engagement between this edge and the hinge pintle to hold it in place.

The arm 2! may be slightly resilient or springy, although this need not be made of definitely flexible material because only very slight resilient action is required to permit the hinge pintle end |5to snap into the arcuate cut-out 26 or the notch 21 in the arcuate wall to hold the latch element in place.

When the parts are assembled as shown in Fig. 1 and the latch II is released, the L-shaped back member may swing freely about the hinge pintle [6 in the usual manner of a hinge. This is the normal use of the apparatus in loading the camera. However, if it is desirable to substitute another camera back or place other attachments on the camera, in order to remove the back, each of the hinge latch elements 2:) are swung to the Fig. 3 position, releasing the ends l5 of the hinge pintle l6 so that when the latch H is released, the entire camera cover can be removed by permitting the hinge pintle ends I5 to slide out of the slots [4. These movements are merely reversed to place the camera cover back in an operative position, and when the hinge pintle ends I5 lie in the slots Hi, the latch elements may be swung until the frictional engagement of the flanges and the hinge pintle ends 15 firmly secure the hinge pintle in position;

It should be particularly noticed with this typ of latch hinge element that the parts are relatively inconspicuous and that they are free from projections on the, camera body and yet they are so placed that they may be readily operated.

I prefer to provide serrations so on the outer face of the extension 24 of the latch elements 29 to facilitate their operation, Also, these form a more or less decorative exterior to these parts.

It should be noticed from Figs. 2 and 4 particularly, that the latch elements are so shaped with respect to the camera body that they lie flush with the exterior walls of this part in the recesses provided for them in the walls of the camera. In swinging the latch elements to release the back, they move away from their recesses in the camera body so that no additional grooves are required in the parts to permit movement of the latch members.

There is an advantage in having two releasable latch elements, because the accidental or intentional release of one latch element will not permit the camera back to be removed from the camera until the other latch element is operated. Thus, there is absolutely no chance of the camera back being accidentally released from the camera body.

What I claim is:

1. In a hinge connection, in combination, a pair of hinged members carrying hinge knuckles positioned to be axially engaged, at hingle pintle carried by the hingle knuckle of one member, said hinge pintle projecting from each end of the knuckle into a position to be engaged by the hingle knuckles carried by the other memher, the said hinge knuckles carried by the last named member including slots, latch members pivoted adjacent the slotted hinge knuckles to swing transversely thereof, said latch members each including an arm bent at right angles to a second arm, one arm carrying an inwardly forihed flange positioned to swing between the hinge knuckle carrying the pintle and a slotted knuckle and into a position for frictionally engaging a projecting end of the pintle to hold said pintle in said slot.

2. In a hinge connection, in combination a pair of hinged members carrying hinge knuckles positioned to be axially engaged, a hinge pintle carried by the hingle knuckle of one member, said hinge pintle projecting from each end of the knuckle into a position to be engaged by the hinge knuckles carried by the other member, the said hinge knuckles carried by the last named member including slots, latch members pivoted adjacent the slotted hinge knuckles to swing transversely thereof, said latch members each including an arm bent at right angles to a second arm, one arm carrying an inwardly formed flange positioned to swing between the hinge knuckle carrying the pintle and a slotted knuckle and into a position for frictionally engaging a projecting end of the pintle to hold said pintle in said slot, the support carrying the slotted hinge knuckles including corner walls recessed to receive the latch members, said slotted knuckles also including recesses parallel to the hinge pintle, the recesses in the corner walls and knuckles being positioned to receive the bent arm latch members in an operative latching position, in which position the latch members lie substantially flush with the corner walls and with the hinge pintle carrying knuckle.

3. In a hinge connection, in combination, a pair of hinged members carrying hinge knuckles positioned to be axially engaged, a hinge pintle carried by the hinge knuckle of one member, said hinge pintle projecting from each end of the knuckle into a position to be engaged by the hinge knuckles carried by the other member, the said hinge knuckles carried by the last named member including slots, latch members pivoted adjacent the slotted hinge knuckles to swing transversely thereof, each of said latch members being of substantially L-shape in cross section, the pivotal mount passing through the top part of the L-shaped member and lying parallel to the hinge pintle and the lower part of the L-shaped member being of a length to extend over the slotted hinge knuckle, a flange on the end of the lower part of the L-shaped member formed inwardly toward the hinge pintle and between the hinge knuckle carrying the pintle and a slotted hinge knuckle to frictionally engage said pintle to hold it in said slotted knuckle, the shape of the pintle engaging flange being an arc of less radius of curvature than the distance between the latch pivot and the parallel hinge pintle and tending to hold the pintle in the slotted knuckle.

CARTER J. HUGHEY. 

